Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

To the Editor:

Re Why the Feminist Movement Needs Pro-Life People (Opinion, nytimes.com, Nov. 28):

Tish Harrison Warren cites an absurd statistic in which 37 percent of self-identified feminists called themselves both pro-life and pro-choice.

As an abortion doctor, I frequently meet women who, lying on the exam table, tell me that they dont believe in abortion, but that theyre in a really difficult situation and have to do it just this once. Some even tell me that theyre actually pro-life.

Yet there they are, in the procedure room, accessing their legal right to an abortion. I wonder how they respond in public opinion polls on abortion. I wonder (and shudder to think) how they vote.

You cannot be both pro-life and pro-choice. Nor can you be pro-life and claim to be a feminist standing for the end to the oppression of women. Ms. Warren is absolutely correct that the inequality of women is not an abstract idea. The concrete, measurable inequality of women in any society begins with the denial of a womans right to determine whether and when to have children.

Christine HennebergSan Francisco

To the Editor:

In Texas Doctors Say Abortion Law Complicates Risky Pregnancies (front page, Nov. 26), a female San Antonio obstetrician opined that 9-year-old girls can safely deliver a baby even if the pregnancy was due to rape or incest. I was appalled to read this opinion, which may be a religious one but surely isnt a sound medical opinion.

Even if a 9-year-old girl was physically ready to deliver a baby safely and that is much in dispute that opinion does not take into account the psychological and emotional well-being of so young a child. How does so young a girl handle a pregnancy, much less one resulting from rape or incest?

The doctor who uttered that opinion should not be practicing medicine or, perhaps better put, she should not be practicing religion but instead be practicing medicine.

Renee FrankenMonterey, Calif.

To the Editor:

Your article on the Texas abortion law provides an important perspective on the role of abortion in high-risk pregnancies.

As OB/GYNs and abortion providers, we have seen firsthand how safe and immediate abortion care can be lifesaving for those with pregnancy complications. We remember one patient in particular who broke her water midway through her pregnancy. She quickly developed a life-threatening infection that spread through her whole body.

She was able to quickly access abortion services, which allowed her to recover from her infection. She could have suffered devastating complications; instead, she was able to safely return home to her family.

For some patients, situations can worsen if providers are forced to wait because of legal constraints. Many providers hoped these scenarios would be a thing of the past, yet this is the situation patients and providers in Texas find themselves in today.

Abortion, along with prenatal care and contraception, is part of comprehensive reproductive health care and we should fight to protect it.

Gopika KrishnaAlexandra MonacoNew YorkThe writers are obstetrics and gynecology fellows at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

To the Editor:

Re Her Welfare Is Primary (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 23):

As an Orthodox Jewish woman, I very much appreciated Sarah Seltzers discussion of Judaisms nuanced view of abortion. A missed point, though, is that a mothers mental health is as important as her physical health. An abortion may not only be permitted, but may be mandated by Jewish law, in a case in which a woman would suffer mentally and emotionally if forced to bear a child.

My own experience, in talking to many, many women who observe as I do, is that an overwhelming majority can envision a case in which they would opt for an abortion, however reluctantly.

Rene SeptimusNew York

To the Editor:

Judaism permits, even requires, abortion in limited cases, and responsible Jews cannot endorse measures that give a fetus the same protections as a born child.

But, with regard to Sarah Seltzers rumination on Judaisms abortion position, there is nothing whatsoever in the Jewish religious tradition that permits abortion as a mere choice to be made for personal, economic or social reasons.

Nothing whatsoever.

(Rabbi) Avi ShafranNew YorkThe writer is director of public affairs at Agudath Israel of America.

To the Editor:

Re The U.S. Cant Be Timid on Omicron, by Zeynep Tufekci (column, Nov. 30):

A truly superb piece with a thoughtful attack plan. This kind of thinking and effort is what has been lacking in our national disaster planning with regard to Covid. We must ask why one individual can put this together but our government cannot.

Frank PollackFairfax Station, Va.

To the Editor:

Zeynep Tufekci presents a compelling call to intelligent action based on science and painful lessons learned though these seemingly endless months of Covid. However, our experience of chronic uncertainty and its toll of chronic stress hinder optimal decision-making. The constant flow of new scientific information reflects brilliant technical achievement, but is emotionally exhausting.

Chronic stress depletes. It impairs our cognitive abilities, as well as our immune functioning. Supporting mental health in every way possible remains of paramount importance as we must lean into a time of even more uncertainty, increasingly to be understood as the new normal.

Ronnie S. StanglerNew YorkThe writer, a psychiatrist, is clinical professor emerita of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Washington.

Visit link:

Opinion | The National Debate Over Abortion Laws - The New York Times

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on Opinion | The National Debate Over Abortion Laws – The New York Times
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

OMAHA. NEB. (KMTV) The annual Jewish Film Festival is taking place at the newly renovated Jewish Community Center of Omaha. It's a community center that truly welcomes all.

"We want to provide a wide range of genres with the films but also demographics, backgrounds and representations," said Jennie Gates Beckman, Director of Community Engagement & Education, Jewish Community Center.

The film festival has been taking place for about two decades. It is about coming together and finding ways of connecting with the community.

"Christianity was built on the foundation of Judaism and so there is a lot more tie-ins than you would expect. Our Jewish values are universal values, American values, things like giving back to others, loving, kindness and learning," said Beckman.

The newly remodeled center is full of symbols, paintings with meanings and messages. They also have a hall of history that is in the works. They are especially proud of their education classes.

Beckman added."If that is goal, you can come here and learn about Judaism. We have a class starting soon called Exploring Judaism."

You can stop by to play basketball, go swimming, work on golf conditioning or participate in a variety of workout classes or competitive games like pickleball. You don't have to be Jewish to be a member of the Jewish Community Center.

They often showcase art from a variety of artists from different backgrounds.

"The intent is for everyone to come together. You don't have to leave who you are when you come in the door. You bring your full self," added Beckman.

You can join them for their Hanukkah streaming event. Visit their website at jccomaha.org.

Download our apps today for all of our latest coverage.

Get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.

Follow this link:

The newly renovated Jewish Community Center of Omaha is hosting its annual Jewish Film Festival - KMTV - 3 News Now

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on The newly renovated Jewish Community Center of Omaha is hosting its annual Jewish Film Festival – KMTV – 3 News Now
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

FEDERATION 411

By ohtadmin | on December 01, 2021

With Thanksgiving and Chanukah so close to one another this year, it feels like the perfect time to take stock of all that I am grateful for. These are holidays that are laden with tradition and that comes with a sense that we are more connected to one another and to our histories during these celebrations. Its a feeling that I try to carry with me throughout the year, acknowledging all that I am thankful forthe people, the community, and the strength of our Judaism.

I am grateful for the people I work with each daythe Jewish Federation and agency staff who are the bedrock of so many vital programs and services in our community, and the lay leaders, both past and present, who give so much of themselves and whose leadership guides us in all that we do throughout our Federation system. I am also grateful for my cohort of execs across the country who are each building strong Jewish communities just like we have here in South Jersey. Their comradery is invaluable. I am grateful for the staff and leadership at our local synagogues, Jewish day schools, and other Jewish institutions who are all working with the Jewish Federation and our agencies to build a vibrant community with us.

I am grateful for our community. Your generosity every time you make a giftwhether its $1 or $1-millionmeans that we can continue our mission to help those in need. I am forever thankful for the hundreds of dedicated volunteers we have across our Jewish Federation system. Your commitment to making a difference in someones life is critical to the continuation of so many of our programs and services. You bring a smile, hope, and love into someones life every time you make a food delivery, a friendly visit, or drive someone to a doctors appointment. And I am grateful to our clients, our program participants, and our event attendees. Your participation in our programs and services shows that what we have built here is neededa place to call home for counseling services, early childhood education, summer day camp, Holocaust education, Jewish news, fitness and wellness programs, supports for older adults and individuals with special needs, and, really truly, so much more.

And I am grateful for the strength of our collective Judaism. I am thankful to live and work in a community where so many Jewish institutions have taken root and thrived. We have an abundance of options to connect to our Judaism in the way that is most meaningful for each of us personally, which means that we also have an abundance of resources for those times when life throws us challenges. We have the strength of our community and our Jewish institutions to turn to when we are faced with anti- Semitism, personal hardships, or finding our Jewish journey in life.

Thank you. I am truly grateful for all of you. Wishing you and your family a Chanukah Sameach!

jweiss@jfedsnj.org

Read more:

So much to be grateful for at this time of year - Jewish Community Voice

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on So much to be grateful for at this time of year – Jewish Community Voice
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

JNS.org Hundreds of kits containing Hanukkah items, such as menorahs and dreidels, were recently sent to Jews living in Arab countries who must observe their Judaism secretively.

The kits were also filled with candles, chocolate coins (gelt) and prayer texts. They were delivered to Jewish residents in Iraq, Yemen and Kurdistan, among other areas, by a special task force from the Israel-based NGOYad LAchim.

The Orthodox Jewish organization keeps in contact with Jews in Arab countries and due to the large demand this year, increased the number of Hanukkah kits it typically sends out.

Jews in Arab countries, for the most part, live in fear and observe their Judaism secretively, said Nir, who manages the Yad LAchim task force. Each time, we have to find creative solutions to transfer the kits, whether the Four Species for Sukkot or menorahs. On many occasions, we have to distribute other types of items related to Judaism, which the residents of these countries have no way of getting.

Yad LAchim President Rabbi Shmuel Lifschitz said, We remember well the slogan of our organization: We dont give up on even a single Jew. This is also the reason we make herculean efforts to reach every Jew, man or woman, who turns to us and asks for our help in this regard.

View original post here:

Hundreds of Hanukkah Kits Sent to Jews Living in Arab Countries - Algemeiner

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on Hundreds of Hanukkah Kits Sent to Jews Living in Arab Countries – Algemeiner
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

To: Rabbi M. SerfatyRabbi, The Portuguese-Spanish Synagogue, Amsterdam30.11.2021

Rabbi Serfaty,

Shalom.Yesterday I was overwhelmed by the emails I received showing me the letter from the 28th of November that you sent to Professor Yitzchak Melamed in the USA. In this letter you forbid him to enter the complex of our synagogue, also called the Snoge, to study documents concerning the ban on Spinoza in his efforts to create a film about this philosopher.

It would seem that you may be ignorant of the fact that the famous former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog z.l. (1888-1959) has already stated that the ban was only in force halachically as long as Spinoza was alive. Furthermore, it would seem you are unaware of the story concerning the ban and the many deliberations concerning the real cause of this ban and the very teachings of Spinoza himself.

As for Prof. Melamed, it may be necessary to inform you that he is a deeply religious Jew who was raised in the ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak in Israel and studied in Yeshivot.

Your view that the ban on Spinozas works is still in force clearly indicates that you are not familiar with his writings, and are thus completely incapable of expressing an opinion about his philosophy.

As an orthodox rabbi who studied in the ultra-Orthodox Gateshead Yeshiva in England for many years and who has read all of Spinozas works, I am of the opinion that Spinoza sometimes deliberately misrepresents Judaism. I am also aware that Spinoza wrote remarkably noble observations about human beings, nature and society which have helped all of us.

For all these reasons I strongly object to your terming the Professor as a persona non grata an act that is a tremendous insult and chutzpah.

By banning the professor from the complex of the synagogue, and as such, not even allowing him to join a minyan in our synagogue, you have created an enormous Chillul Hashem, desecration of Gods name, making Orthodox Judaism a farce in the eyes of the many. You have done all of us, who fight for the honor of Judaism, a great disservice.

Shame on you!

You have all the right in the world to disagree with Prof. Melamed, yet it behooves you to invite him to discuss his intentions and the contents of the film, and possibly contribute to his endeavor.

I hope the lay leaders of the Portuguese-Spanish Community in Amsterdam will take the necessary steps to undo this great damage.

Yours sincerely,

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes CardozoJerusalem

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is the Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Rabbi Cardozo is the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew. Rabbi Cardozo heads a Think Tank focused on finding new Halachic and philosophical approaches to dealing with the crisis of religion and identity amongst Jews and the Jewish State of Israel. Hailing from the Netherlands, Rabbi Cardozo is known for his original and often fearlessly controversial insights into Judaism. His ideas are widely debated on an international level on social media, blogs, books and other forums.

See the original post here:

An open letter to Rabbi Serfaty of Amsterdam - The Times of Israel

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on An open letter to Rabbi Serfaty of Amsterdam – The Times of Israel
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

This piece originally ran on TC Jewfolk.

On the third day of Hanukkah, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. This is one of the most consequential lawsuits in decades concerning reproductive freedom, and the first case that the Supreme Court has taken in which a state is directly calling upon the Court to overturn the constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade.

While we wont know the outcome until this summer, the tenor of the arguments indicates that there is likely to be a majority of justices who are ready, willing and eager to overturn Roe. If that happens, we know that half of the United States stand ready to severely limit or ban access to abortion care, and it makes it more likely that the 450 restrictive state laws that already exist will be strengthened and harder to overturn. These laws erode the personal protections and rights afforded by the Constitution. They limit the power, faculty and capacity that the right to liberty and bodily autonomy should grant to each of us.

As we continue to celebrate Hanukkah, let us recall the lesser-known story of Judah Maccabees sister Hannah. Hannah, engaged to be married, was subject to the Right of the First Night under the law of the Greek oppressors, whereby a local nobleman could opt to have sex with a Jewish virgin bride before the groom. Both bride and groom would have to comply for fear of death. When it came time for her wedding feast, Hannah tore off her garments and called out her brothers for allowing her to be raped. They were put in their place, and according to Jewish tradition, this stirred their zealotry and began the Maccabean Revolt.

Perhaps we lost track of this portion of our narrative because we are ashamed. It is painful to know that our ancestors did not stand up to prevent the theft of personal license, dignity, choice, and freedom. Hannahs bravery, rising from the depths of her anger and heartache, would cease to be part of the popular legacy of the Jewish people passed down from one generation to the next. Yet we must reclaim this festival as Hannah-kah. Now is the time for us to stand up for this generation and future generations of Hannahs, preventing the rape of personal freedoms and affirming that we are in control of our bodies.

Hannahs faith and courage changed the course of history, and at this crucial moment in time, let us honor and amplify the stories and the voices of todays Hannahs the powerful, often unsung heroes who are fighting to preserve rights and justice for all of us, even when theirs have been stripped away. Let us write them back into our important narratives.

The focus of this weeks Supreme Court hearing was the 14th Amendment, as the court ruled in Roe v. Wade in 1973, effectively affirming this position that is, the Constitution protects a pregnant persons liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. The Supreme Court invoked a fundamental right to privacy being violated when ones liberty to choose is taken away. Why? People who become pregnant are no longer protected as equal to those who cannot; the government declares what they can and cannot do with their bodies; their intimate decisions are made public.

But as we consider a future without the protections afforded by Roe v. Wade it is important to acknowledge that access to abortion is also a First Amendment issue. Different religions believe that human life begins at different stages of development. Science can explain developmental timelines, but philosophic and religious viewpoints largely determine what exactly defines life or personhood for each individual. In Judaism, terminating a pregnancy is not only permissible but at times required.

All Jewish denominations agree that a childs life does not begin at conception under Jewish law. The Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 69b) asserts that the fetus is water before 40 days of gestation. Or, later, as more clearly stated by physician-philosopher Maimonides: Shekol arbaim yom eino ubar ela mayim baolam hu chashuv For, throughout the forty days, the embryo is not considered as a fetus, merely as water (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Terumah 8:3).

This is not just a matter of Jewish law, but of Jewish values as well. We consider preserving life and building a just society to be among our most critical imperatives. Safety, justice, freedom, and lives are at stake if we restrict or remove access to abortion care. The United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among industrialized countries, with people of color three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white Americans. Unsafe abortions are a leading cause of death worldwide, and restricting access to this essential health care will cause unnecessary death and poor outcomes if the protections afforded by Roe fall.

It is not our goal to enshrine Jewish laws or values in the laws of the United States. On the contrary: We believe, as the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees, that no one religion should be enshrined in law or dictate public policy on any issue including abortion. Laws limiting or restricting access to abortion not only do not avail us of our religious rights but instead impede our ability to practice Judaism. This further violates the Establishment Clause, while simultaneously infringing upon the constitutional right to privacy found in the 14th Amendment.

Indeed, there should be a healthy separation of church and state, but the same principles of equality that this amendment invokes are the bedrock to Judaism and the social justice we as Jews are compelled to pursue.

This is why we are terrified by and mobilized to fight the threat to decisions like Roe v. Wade.

As Hannahs faith and courage changed the face of history, we must pledge to continue her fight in the name of those whose dignity and justice have been stripped away. We must prevent future injustice and hardship.

We will fight as anti-abortion lawmakers across the country continue their sustained and coordinated attacks on reproductive freedoms and our religious liberties. We will not sit idle while our Constitution is torn asunder our Jewish faith compels us to pursue justice until our feet no longer walk this earth. And pursue justice we will and we implore you to join us.

Excerpt from:

Fight like Judah Maccabee's sister for abortion rights J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on Fight like Judah Maccabee’s sister for abortion rights J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

(RNS) Lets call it Facebook Theology.

Over the past year, I have noticed an interesting trend on social media. A religious holiday comes, and people will post appropriate photographs and graphics, and offer the following greeting: Happy (name of holiday) to those who celebrate.

On the one hand, I find that greeting to be odd. To whom else would you be wishing a happy, say, Hanukkah, or even a Shabbat shalom, other than to those who celebrate it?

But, on the other hand, something is going on here, and it speaks to how Americans now understand religion.

In my woefully unscientific observation, based on my Facebook feed, the to those who celebrate wishers are overwhelmingly Jewish.

They are most likely responding to something thats been simmering in American religious culture for a long time. It is the default setting of American religiosity, the ubiquity of a Christian religious culture.

Jews and other non-Christians constantly encounter Merry Christmas! and experience seasonal Santa Claustrophobia. It is inescapable and it seems to be starting earlier and earlier with every passing year.

Ah, religious conservatives will say, there you go! This is the war on Christmas!

Sorry, Virginia: there is no war on Christmas. This is a different kind of war.

It is not a war on It is a battle for

It is a battle for American religious pluralism.

Many non-Christians are tired of being thrown theological bones during this season of being less than and Other. Many of them hear Merry Christmas! as, at the very least, presumptuous, and at the very most, hegemonic.

They do not want to echo the chutzpah of Merry Christmas! So, they make their offerings of, say, Happy Hanukkah! gingerly.

I get it even though I now accept warm wishes of Merry Christmas! in the way it was intended as an act of generosity and graciousness.

The sales associate at Target is hardly my idea of a religious zealot, ready to carry the cross into battle as soon as her shift is over.

Ours is a brutal and coarse culture. Why not accept a good wish, even if it is not the way we would have wanted it phrased?

Yes, we recoil from the loudness of Merry Christmas! and the in your face nature of public Christian observance.

Being who you are too loudly is, at the very least, a nuisance and perhaps even vulgar.

But the opposite is also true.

There is something in that to those who celebrate that seems too cautious and too timid.

This is the industrial byproduct of secularization. It is the public softness of the religious claim.

Here, my teacher is the late sociologist of religionJohn Murray Cuddihy. Western civilization, he wrote, rests on secularized Christianity, and in order to be fully accepted in it, the classical Jew was obliged to euphemize himself.

He had to be nice, to renounce the intensity, fanaticism, and inwardness, the too muchness, of his personality and his history. The ordeal of civility was the price of admission to the heaven on earth of American social status.

But, not only Jews. In his book No Offense: Civil Religion and Protestant Taste, written in 1978, he brings us a compelling observation.

From the inside, one feels: I am a Catholic, I am a Jew; but in a differentiating society, this global, even oceanic identity-feeling is broken up; it must not intrude itself embarrassingly, irrelevantly, into secular social occasions. This inner experience of secularization expresses itself in ordinary life in the everyday phrase I happen to be a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew Religion must know its proper place in a modernizing society. Religious identities must not be pushy, elbowing themselves into contexts where they do not belong.

I believe Cuddihy got this right. There is a certain secularist pushback that forces us to minimize our religious identities, precisely for fear of being thought evangelical, fundamentalist or (gulp) too Jewish.

Herein lies the paradox. It turns out when you do religious stuff publicly, it has meaning.

I had a small taste of this on this past Sunday. One of our Temple Israel religious school students decided he would organize a public Hanukkah observance in his (not overwhelmingly Jewish) neighborhood in West Palm Beach, Florida. He arranged for a hanukiyah to be there. He wrote and delivered an erudite and appropriate introduction to the holiday. There were local town officials there. Most of the people were not Jewish, but all of them thanked him for making this happen.

At its core, Hanukkah is about pirsum ha-nes, a PR campaign around overlapping and intertwining miracles yes, a legend about a small amount of oil in the ancient Temple that lasts eight nights, but also, and more powerfully, a Judean military victory against the most powerful army in the world and a religious miracle the creative survival and thriving of Judaism itself.

Oh, one other thing.

If the Maccabees had lost to the Syrian-Greeks, there would have been no more Torah.

No more Judaism. No more Jewish people that would have carried the flag of monotheism. No Jewish people that would have ultimately birthed Jesus of Nazareth. No Jewish Bible that would wind up as the Old Testament. No monotheism, and no Jewish scriptures, that would ultimately influence Islam.

So, yes: A happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate.

Perhaps we all should.

Read the original here:

"To those who celebrate." What's up with that? - Religion News Service

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on "To those who celebrate." What’s up with that? – Religion News Service
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

(The Conversation) The eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah commemorates ancient Jews victory over the powerful Seleucid empire, which ruled much of the Middle East from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.

On the surface, its a story of male heroism. A ragtag rebel force led by a rural priest and his five sons, called the Maccabees, freed the Jews from oppressive rulers. Hanukkah, which means rededication in Hebrew, celebrates the Maccabees victory, which allowed the Jews to rededicate their temple in Jerusalem, the center of ancient Jewish worship.

But as a professor of Jewish history, I believe that seeing Hanukkah this way misses the inspiring women who were prominent in the earliest tellings of the story.

The bravery of a young widow named Judith is at the heart of an ancient book that bears her name. The heroism of a second woman, an unnamed mother of seven sons, appears in a book known as 2 Maccabees.

These books are not included in the Hebrew scriptures, but appear in other collections of religious texts known as the Septuagint and the Apocrypha.

According to these texts, Judith was a young Israelite widow in a town called Bethulia, strategically situated on a mountain pass into Jerusalem. To besiege Jerusalem, the Seleucid army first needed to capture Bethulia.

Facing such a formidable enemy, the townsfolk were terrified. Unless God immediately intervened, they decided, they would simply surrender. Enslavement was preferable to certain death.

But Judith scolded the local leaders for testing God, and was brave enough to take matters into her own hands. Removing her widows clothing, she entered the enemy camp. She beguiled the Seleucid general, Holofernes, with her beauty, and promised to give her people over to him. Hoping to seduce her, Holofernes prepared a feast. By the time his entourage left him alone with Judith, he was drunk and asleep.

Now she carried out her plan: cutting off his head and escaping back to Bethulia. The following morning, the discovery of Holofernes headless body left the Seleucid army trembling with fear. Soldiers fled by every available path as Bethulias Jews, recovering their courage, rushed in and slaughtered them. Judiths bravery saved her town and, with it, Jerusalem.

The book of 2 Maccabees, Chapter 7, meanwhile, relates the story of an unnamed Jewish mother and her seven sons, who were seized by the Seleucids.

Emperor Antiochus commanded that they eat pork, which is forbidden by the Torah, to show their obedience to him. One at a time, the sons refused. An enraged Antiochus subjected them to unspeakable torture. Each son withstood the ordeal and is portrayed as a model of bravery. Resurrection awaits those who die in the service of God, they proclaimed, while for Antiochus and his followers, only death and divine punishment lay ahead.

Throughout these ordeals, their mother encouraged her sons to accept their suffering. She reinforced her womans reasoning with a mans courage, as 2 Maccabees relates, and admonished her sons to remember their coming reward from God.

Having killed the first six brothers, Antiochus promised the youngest a fortune if only he would reject his faith. His mother told the boy, Accept death, so that in Gods mercy I may get you back again along with your brothers. The story in 2 Maccabees ends with the simple statement that, after her sons deaths, the mother also died.

Later retellings give the mother a name. Most commonly, she is called Hannah, based on a detail in the biblical book of 1 Samuel. In this section, called the prayer of Hannah, the prophet Samuels mother refers to herself as having borne seven children.

Jewish educator and author Erica Brown has emphasized a lesson we should learn from the story of Judith, one that emerges from 2 Maccabees as well. Just like the Hanukkah story generally, the message of these texts is that its not always the likely candidates who save the day, she writes. Sometimes salvation comes when you least expect it, from those who are least likely to deliver it.

Three hundred years after the Maccabean revolt, Judaisms earliest rabbis stressed a similar message. Adding a new focus to Hanukkah, they spoke of a divine miracle that occurred when the ancient Jews took back the Temple and wanted to relight the holy eternal flame inside. They found just one small vessel of oil, sufficient to light the flame for only one day but it lasted eight days, giving them time to produce a new supply.

As the influential rabbi David Hartman pointed out, the Hanukkah story celebrates our peoples strength to live without guarantees of success. Some ordinary person, he points out, took the initiative to rekindle the eternal flame, despite how futile doing so may have seemed.

Ever since, Judaism has increasingly focused on the interaction of the human and the divine. The Hanukkah story teaches listeners that they all must play a part to repair a hurting world. Not everyone needs to be a Judith or Hannah; but, like them, we humans cant wait for God to take care of it.

In synagogues, one of the readings for the week during Hanukkah is from the prophet Zechariah, who proclaimed, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. These words succinctly capture the meaning of Hanukkah and express what Jews might think about while lighting the Hanukkah candles: our responsibility to act in the spirit of God to create the miracles the world needs to become a place of beauty, equity and freedom.

(Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Link:

This Hanukkah, learn about the holiday's forgotten heroes: Women - Religion News Service

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on This Hanukkah, learn about the holiday’s forgotten heroes: Women – Religion News Service
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

A forest fire, racing up a mountain. A tortoise, deep inside the earth. A dark sea, rough on the surface and still beneath it.

These images, carved on blocks and printed by artist Ava Sayaka Rosen, are part of a deck of cards that is simultaneously an art piece, a spiritual tool and a call to connect with nature.

I was looking for a way to educate people about ecology, but also make that connection between taking care of the Earth and taking care of yourself, and human relationships, Rosen said. I felt like tarot was a good way to bridge all of those things.

Rosen, 33, created the tarot deck as a 2021 fellow with LABA East Bay, the yearlong Jewish artists fellowship hosted by the JCC East Bay. Its a project that fuses her passion for nature and text-based art with her Jewish roots.

My Jewish upbringing, combined with my parents love for nature, really instilled a deep sense of belonging and connection in nature, said Rosen, who is biracial (her mother is Japanese and her father is Ashkenazi Jewish). And that was really the inspiration to make this deck.

Rosen, who lives in Oakland, grew up in San Francisco and has an MFA in creative writing and book art from Mills College. Her first art job was at Congregation Emanu-El as a teen assistant in the art room, helping the art teacher. Now shes an artist and an art teacher herself at the San Francisco synagogue with her own Jewish high school-age assistants.

That was my first job, and I really liked it, she said. And its just hilarious to me that Im full circle. Im back there as the art teacher with teen helpers.

While her study of art was in a school setting, her background in tarot was personal.

I was initially drawn to the imagery. I didnt know anything about what the cards meant, or the history of it, she said. As I started to learn more about it, I got really into tarot reading practice as a way to investigate myself and my relationships.

Tarot cards date back to 15th-century Italy. They were adapted for mystical purposes, including as a fortunetelling tool, in 18th-century France, and social media has brought new interest to the practice. During a tarot reading, cards with evocative images are drawn from a deck and interpreted through a particular lens. Some draw on Kabbalah in their readings.

As an artist, Rosen said creating her own deck was a natural step. The deck she designed as a LABA fellow is not a particularly Jewish artwork, although it contains some Jewish texts to help deepen the understanding of each image. But the LABA fellowship allowed her to take an existing concept and develop it. It also gave her deadlines to meet.

Its a very ambitious project to create original concepts and carve them, print them, write them write the descriptions for them so I knew I was going to need some accountability help, in a major way, she said.

Of the 78 cards that make up a tarot deck, Rosen has finished 39, mostly during the LABA fellowship. She plans to look for a publisher once the deck is completed.

This LABA fellowship really put a fire under my butt and gave me a deadline, and I just worked really, really hard to produce about half the deck now, she said.

Rosen started each design by pulling a card from her copy of the Rider-Waite deck, the most well-known tarot deck (first published in 1909, it is famous for its esoteric imagery and is what most people think of when they think of tarot cards). She let that be a guide for the inspiration and interpretation needed to make a version of her own.

Thinking through the traditional interpretations of each card, she would find a related nature concept and create a description with writing prompts for self-reflection questions, she said.

Working with other Jewish artists really opened up my ideas about what Jewish art is.

For the Moon card, which shows a glowing full moon lightly wreathed with clouds, the questions included: What do you know? What are you being pulled towards? The guide for the Compost card, which shows bright mushrooms sprouting from a log, has a well-known section from Genesis: For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.

I think working with other Jewish artists really opened up my ideas about what Jewish art is, Rosen said.

She called the project TARO::TORA after two images from the traditional Rider-Waite deck, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. The connection between tarot and Torah, which the title references, is mysterious but very much present within the traditional archetypes of the cards, she said.

Rosen was able to see the power of TARO::TORA in person at a live LABA event on Nov. 7 at the JCC East Bay. Her corner, where she did readings with her deck, was more popular than she expected.

I didnt think that a big line would form, Rosen said with a laugh.

Musician David Israel Katz was one of those who got a reading. He said he was drawn to the project for the way it combined the visual language of liberty and playfulness on the one hand, and of aesthetic cohesion and deep inquiry on the other hand.

As minimal as the reading was in its outward format, it was intimately illuminating inwardly, he told J. in an email. The card I drew spoke to me immediately, and Ava was able to describe accurately and concisely the different facets contained in the image.

Sarah Wolfman-Robichaud, director of public programs at the JCC East Bay, said the JCC was eager to have Rosen in the fellowship not only because of her talent and her connections in the art and Jewish worlds, but also because of her experience teaching children. The JCC has plans to expand on LABA by bringing artists into the preschool and afterschool programs, and Wolfman-Robichaud said Rosen was an obvious choice for that, as well.

For Rosen, LABA was a unique opportunity for her to participate in a group with others like herself: Jewish artists who together could explore the concepts of Jewishness, art and Jewish art.

I think the text study paired with art making was really appealing to me, and felt unique, she said. I think it really allowed us to have deep conversations around these ideas and really form community.

Read more:

'TARO::TORA' artist Ava Sakaya Rosen's Torah-inspired tarot deck J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on ‘TARO::TORA’ artist Ava Sakaya Rosen’s Torah-inspired tarot deck J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 4, 2021

Corporations and plenty of everyday people treat Hanukkah as Jewish Christmas. It has a nice little story about miraculous oil, plus you decorate your house and give gifts. Even plenty of Jews feel this way; Hanukkah provides a way for us to participate in the music, media and cheer that dominates the Christmas season. After all, for many of the people taking advantage of Black Friday sales or putting up yard displays of lights and inflatables, Christmas is barely even Christian anymore it has become an American holiday about Santa and reindeer and presents, and Jewish Americans dont want to miss out.

This Christmas-centric celebration of Hanukkah would make the Maccabees the stars and heroes of the Hanukkah story go to war. Again. This time against the American Jews who so love celebrating the Maccabees last war, whether or not they know it.

Image by iStock

A Maccabean nightmare.

Hanukkah, you see, is actually about zealotry, war and killing assimilated Jews. Today it may be about eating fried foods, lighting candles in the dark of winter and unwrapping gifts with your family on each of its eight nights, but the original holiday commemorates a bloody war not only between the Maccabees and the Greeks but between the zealous and the assimilated.

Not everyone knows this; the holiday has been simplified to make it more appealing to the masses. Growing up, I was taught that Hanukkah was about the miracle of the oil, in which the Jews needed to keep the temple lit but only had enough oil for a day. Miraculously, it stayed lit for eight days, long enough to get more oil, and now we celebrate by eating oily foods and lighting candles. Simple stuff maybe a bit uninspiring, but its got magic and good food and thats enough for a solid holiday.

This is, however, a small part of the Hanukkah story; some scholars believe the miracle of the oil part was added later on in the holidays development, to spice up the story and make it more about God and less about war. And regardless of when, why or how it became part of the story, the miracle of the oil is only mentioned once in rabbinic literature, in the Babylonian Talmud.

The holiday is really about the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire, a Hellenistic state that ruled over the area of Judea in the beginning of the second century BCE. The Seleucids allowed the Jews to continue to practice their religion at first, but eventually took over the Jewish temple and were using it for sacrifices to Zeus, so a priest named Matityahu, and his five sons including Judah HaMaccabee began a revolt against the empire.

But that war was not really just between Jews and Greeks. It was also possibly even mostly between Jews and other Jews.

During the Seleucid Empire, there was a movement to create a universal, Hellenistic culture throughout the Greek empire, and there was a movement of Jews often called Hellenistic Jews who didnt mind this; they incorporated Greek cultural practices, such as athletic competitions, into Jewish life while largely maintaining their own traditions. They did not feel that being Jewish precluded their participation in Hellenistic culture, and eagerly joined in Greek life, not unlike many secular or assimilated American Jews today who hang stockings next to their hanukkiahs.

The Maccabees rejected the idea of Hellenistic Judaism, however, and the two movements disagreed as to who would become the High Priest in the temple, causing violent conflict. While one Seleucid emperor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, did crack down on Jewish freedom of worship, defiling the temple and forbidding circumcision, the internal Jewish theological disagreements on purity of practice were also a major motivating factor in starting the Maccabean revolt possibly even a greater factor than the Seleucid rule. Whats certain is that the Maccabees fought against and killed their Hellenized brethren during the war.

This means that the Maccabees win, and reclamation of the defiled temple, was not a victory for the Jewish people as a whole, but instead for a specific form of Orthodoxy and interpretation of Judaism. Their win helped start the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled the region for about 100 years, until Herod took over, and they instituted Hanukkah as a celebration of their reclamation of the temple.

Of course, they may have won the battle, but the Maccabees lost the war; after the destruction of the temple, Jews were forced into diaspora, where we absorbed all kinds of traditions, even developing new languages such as Yiddish and Ladino that mixed Hebrew with local tongues. Assimilation was essential to survival, and has enriched and diversified Jewish traditions and practices for centuries. Much of the Talmud is even devoted to refining traditions and interactions between Jewish communities and their gentile neighbors.

Its ironic that Hanukkah a celebration of strict Orthodoxy and vicious repudiation of assimilation is, today, often most beloved by the the most assimilated Jews, who are trying to fit in with a dominantly Christian culture with decorations and gifts that model themselves after their Christmas counterparts. But even without the Oy to the World merchandise, Hanukkahs foundational traditions are based on regional traditions Jews picked up in diaspora. You think they ate latkes in Hasmonean Jerusalem? Potatoes originated in South America and didnt even come to Europe until the 16th century; Ashkenazi Jews living in diaspora in Eastern Europe incorporated them into their diets.

I dont love the idea of celebrating religious extremists killing and exiling those who disagree with their theological interpretations, so I enjoy the irony of Hanukkah, and embrace these diasporic Hanukkah traditions as a way of thumbing our collective nose at a restrictive regime. (Im more fond of the diasporic tradition of eating potatoes than the Christmas-lite Hanukkah merchandise, though.)

But despite all of this, the Maccabees message can still be felt in even the most assimilated Hanukkah celebration any Jew celebrating Hanukkah is doing so as a way to maintain their connection to Judaism in the face of the Christian hegemony that dominates the U.S. They may be more Hellenistic than Maccabean, but theyre still trying to hold onto Jewish practice and celebrating its survival.

See original here:

Hanukkah today would make the Maccabees roll over in their graves - Forward

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on Hanukkah today would make the Maccabees roll over in their graves – Forward
Tags: